Officer says he kept warrant for fatal drug search

That's how long Bethlehem police officer Anthony Leardi Jr. was in the home of John Hirko Jr. in 1997, hoping to search it for drugs, Leardi testified Tuesday.

Leardi told a federal jury that he based the estimate on recordings of radio transmissions police made that day.

For Leardi, those 17 seconds triggered a civil rights trial in Allentown that is expected to last months. Thirteen other officers and the city are defendants.

Leardi led the police investigation that prompted an effort to search Hirko's South Side rental house. But before they could search it, police shot Hirko to death and accidentally set fire to his home.

Leardi testified that he was the first officer to enter through a rear entrance after another officer bashed in the door. He said he did not see Hirko, but heard officer Joseph Riedy fire two bursts of automatic gunfire at Hirko from the other side of the house.

Part of the legal defense is that Hirko fired a gun at police. But John Karoly Jr., the lawyer representing Hirko's family, fiancee and landlord, alleges that Hirko did not have a gun in his hand.

Also Tuesday, Leardi testified that he held onto the original search warrant for a week, even though it's supposed to be kept by the court.

Karoly claims that gave police a chance to alter the search warrant after it was approved.

During that time, District Justice Nancy Matos-Gonzalez of Bethlehem wrote a letter to Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli complaining that, by not having the search warrant in her file, she could have been accused of participating in a police cover-up. She has been subpoenaed to testify.

Karoly also showed Leardi two copies of the search warrant with much different signatures on the district justice line. District Justice Michael Koury Sr., who was the acting district justice the night of the raid, was supposed to sign both copies. It is unclear if both signatures are those of Koury, who has died.

During his testimony, Leardi also acknowledged leaving the police force's special operations unit under pressure after the raid. Then police Commissioner Eugene Learn suggested Leardi resign because it appeared the pressure of the unit, which handles undercover drug investigations, was affecting him, according to Leardi. Leardi also said being a single parent was stressful.

Before leaving the unit, Leardi testified, he had struck an officer's desk and chair in anger with a baseball bat while other officers were watching. Leardi said he had caught the officer going through items on his desk and in his desk. And the officer once answered Leardi's phone, ''Tony's Love Line,'' according to Leardi.

Leardi also testified that before joining the special operations unit he was charged with harassment for allegedly assaulting a woman. The charges were dismissed because the woman did not appear at a hearing. In addition, while in the Coast Guard, he was disciplined for getting into a fight, according to his testimony.

And he testified that he flunked the police psychological exam once before becoming an officer.

Karoly claims the city was negligent in the way it hired, promoted and disciplined officers.

Leardi was the 13th officer to testify. All of the officers who have testified, except Learn, were on the raid. Only Riedy has not testified.